The Umbrella Salesman
by SeraSearaSpin
Summary: AU. Kano sells magic umbrellas, but no one believes in magic. Based off of Steampianist's & morbidMorsel's song.
1. A Busy Young Salesman

**Because while I'm at it, why not start something completely new? Of course, who knows when I'll find time to update, but that's irrelevant. ****Based off of Steampianist & morbidMorsel's song 'The Umbrella Salesman'. Listen to it. It's haunting. I don't think I'm doing it justice in this story, but enough of that.**

**If ****Kano seems somewhat OOC, it's because I'm writing him as still fairly young, so he hasn't quite learned to shield his emotions yet. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.**

**(happy birthday you deceiver you)**

**Anyway, review! :D**

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The newly-risen sun gleamed like a pale coin behind a thin layer of clouds. The wind blew strongly for a moment, tangling in the trees, bending the grass, and spilling the merchandise of the umbrella salesman out of his hands.

"Ah!" He leaped and ran, catching the umbrellas as they drifted like ungainly jellyfish across the sidewalk. One tumbled into the street, and he darted after it, barely missing the incoming front end of a car. An indignant honk of the horn scolded him as he finally caught the umbrella, folding it closed with a decisive snap. "Phew! That was a close one," he said to no one in particular, and tucked the umbrellas more firmly under his arm so that the next gust wouldn't toss them out of his hands again._  
_

It was a frosty day, and Kano's short-sleeved jacket didn't do much to keep him warm. Shifting the umbrellas to the crook of one arm, he rubbed the other with his hand, trying to bring some warmth back into it. It didn't work very well, and he shivered before turning to look at the houses on the side of the street. They didn't look too shabby, like the kind of people who would knock him down to steal his merchandise. Maybe he could sell some things here and get a few dollars, maybe buy a little food.

He smiled. _Yes, that's what I'll do. It's an excellent plan. _He took a breath and knocked on the door, pasting a smile on his face.

It opened a little, and a thin-faced woman peered out. "Yes?"

"Would you like to buy an umbrella?" offered the boy, pulling out an umbrella to display. It was red with white spots, like a toadstool, and he twirled it in his hand before opening it with a small _poompf_. "A magic umbrella, soar up and awa-"

"No, thank you." She all but slammed the door in his face.

Kano dropped the smile and closed the umbrella, rubbing one chilly arm halfheartedly. _Nobody wants to buy them,_ he thought to himself. _They don't believe in magic._ Then, he straightened up, went to the next door, took that bracing breath, and rapped firmly on the door.

It was answered by a small girl with a mane of light hair, who stared up at him with large, inquisitive eyes. He smiled back. "Hello little girl, is your mother here?"

"Yes." A taller woman came to the door, putting a hand on the child's shoulder protectively and eyeing him with suspicion. _Well, all right, fine, so I'm not entirely out of the poorest area yet, _he amended. _Still, nobody's tried to rob me yet._

"Would you like to buy an umbrella?" Cue the swoop, twirl in hand and the opening of the umbrella. This one was bear patterned, pale beige with semicircle ears and a smiling face. The little girl clapped her hands in delight, and on a sudden instinct, Kano bent down to her level. "Do you want to know a secret?"

The girl giggled and nodded her head, and the blond boy stage-whispered, "These are _magic_ umbrellas."

The look of utter astonishment on her face was adorably comical. He felt a surge of joy for making someone happy, dampened only when the mother fixed a steely glare on him that made him want to freeze in place. "If you try, really hard, you can float up to lie on the silver clouds. It's a real bird's-eye view."

The girl turned to her mother. "Mama! Can we buy an umbwella?" The stereotypical toddler lisp changed the word endearingly. "Pwease?" Kano rolled the umbrella handle between his palms at that, sending the colors into a rainbow blur.

For a moment, the woman seemed to be indecisive, hesitating on the threshold of agreement, and Kano's hopes lifted. _Maybe..._

Then she firmed her resolve and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we don't have money for things like this. Maybe next time, Mary," she said to the girl, tousling the fluffy white locks. Mary pouted, but didn't complain any further than that. "Thank you for your time."

The woman closed the door (_trying to coerce working women into spending their hard-earned money on frivolous items, what a joke_), and Kano sighed. The day didn't seem to be getting any warmer, and he was hungry. As if on cue, his stomach growled loudly, and he looked around to see if anyone had heard. It was embarrassing that he'd had to do this, but this was his life now. Only the clothes on his back and the umbrellas he'd found in a garbage pail one day. And how long ago was that? Two months? Three? It felt like his entire life. Certainly more than three paltry months doing this, that was assured.

He'd sold none of them.

Why didn't they believe him when they said they were magic? They were. He'd found them, opened one, and it'd taken him away, to almost fairyland. The clouds and comets were in easy reach, and he could stroke his fingers through the night sky and stir it, licking the stars off his fingers as if they were sprinkles. And though he'd had the time of his life, it was somewhat lonely up there.

_If even just one person would buy one, we could walk hand in hand through the sky as if we were angels. _The thought made him smile. _We'd both fly, dancing into the sun. It'd be beautiful._

Kano tripped over a curb (_clumsy child_), and the umbrellas scattered out of his hands again, rolling every which way. He hastened to pick them up before the wind did, and then he sat on the curb, feeling somewhat faint for a moment. _When was the last time I had something to eat? That was the day before yesterday, right? When that old man didn't chase me away from the trash can. __Maybe I should go back there instead._

Except he already knew that his exhausted legs couldn't manage the trek all the way across the city. He could just patrol the neighborhood, perhaps, looking to sell an umbrella and buy something. But he knew it was a small town, and as he walked from place to place and city to city he'd come full circle, hadn't he? This is where his mother had died, and after walking a few circuits the area, he'd found his way home like a pigeon come to roost. _Bad times can never quite get off of you, can they?_

With effort, he pushed himself back to his feet, clenching the umbrellas tightly. The next house over had a red door, tall with rectangular paneling, and rusted doorknob worn down by use. And he pitched his sales again and again. Once more, twice more. Past noon, people didn't answer the doors anymore. Every door he knocked on was closed, and did not open. He thought it was a pretty accurate representation of the way his life was going.

The sun had started to plunge past the horizon when Kano ended up in an alleyway, all unsold magic umbrellas tight within his grasp, and a gnawing pain in his belly. Orange shadows painted his face like rust, and frustrated tears squeezed from his eyes. "It's unfair!" he shouted, throwing down the umbrellas. "Some people can't make a living, and some can! Why can't I join them? Why do I have to stay anchored in reality? It's not _fair_, dammit!"

_(you don't, remember?)_

Mechanically, gathering up his precious umbrellas, he grabbed the first one that came to his fingers. A rainbow-patterned one, a new color for each segment.

_(are you ready to go up?)_

Closing his eyes and sighing like a druggie taking a hit, he reverently fumbled with the umbrella, opening it slowly and then all at once.

Everything glowed.


	2. Door to Door

**I hope I can update this more often. But I think it's one of those cases where "ending is all planned out, plot is a big question mark". For example, I had no idea what I was doing in this chapter, but here I am anyway. **

**Review! :D**

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When he descended from the empyrean, it was bitterly cold. His body became a shell of ice, and his light-footed aiua spun in its grasp, uncomprehending of this peculiar stiffness that grasped his bones. Kano was tilted, sitting against the wall of the alley, just out of the streetlamp's reach, and the umbrella's handle was frosted to his hands. The rainbow portal was closed. The wind cut right through his jacket, and he would've shivered if he'd had the energy. As it was, his cold muscles lacked the warmth to even consider moving.

_Is this it, then? An unceremonious freezing by the side of the road, a piece of garbage disregarded by society? Is this how I'll find my end?_

A rush of energy infused him, and he struggled with his inflexible muscles, a sudden burst of passion heating his core. He pushed mightily against his natural bonds, clawing movements that rippled docilely under his skin. Yet just as soon as it came, it left, to be replaced with an apathy so thick he thought he'd never escape it. _What does it matter? I have no one, and no one has me..._

Kano remembered the stars, clockwork constellations glinting warmly as he swam among their heights. It brought the smallest of smiles to his arctic lips, nothing more than the slightest of curves facing up. A void the direct opposite of the seemingly eternal stars clutched at him, a subpoena to the final court.

After a short eternity submerged in the cloudy depths, he felt motion. From where, he could not pinpoint, but windows were opening in the darkness. The sky, dappled gray and blue the color of arteries in white flesh, crouched around him. He felt it enfold him like a cloak in an intimate way it had never done before.

Another window, and he realized it wasn't the sky he was shrouded in, but a thick dun-colored blanket. The sky was gone, and in its place was an uncertain orange light. The faintest of feelings returned to him, and there was a dull drone over his head. If he concentrated, he could make out words, but concentrating made his head pound, and the window closed again.

The last window was open for nary more than a second, and it was one of sensation rather than sight. A hand folded to his cheek for a brief instant, palm warm against his clammy skin. No one had touched him with kindness - or touched him at all, really, other than a few kicks and wild swings given by the rude citizens of other cities - since his mother had died. And his mother had been a combination of both worlds, hadn't she?

That thought in mind, he drifted away again, retreating to dwell in the dark Cimmerian desert.

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Sensation returned in gently widening sweeps. A scratchy blanket was rough against Kano's arms and face, and his hair was damp with sweat. He allowed himself a moment to indulge in the luxury of warmth before sitting up straight.

_Where am I? _That was obviously his first priority. A dark room- wait, there were slivers of pasty gray light that leaked around curtains and darkly lambent coals. A warmer light dribbled in a bar, and he guessed it was spilling from under a door. It didn't appear to be a hostile environment.

Kano turned to the next item on his list: _Where are my umbrellas?_ He untangled himself from the blanket and cast about, desperate.

The constructions of cloth and metal were his livelihood. He couldn't live without them. Just the thought of being parted from his umbrellas and his precious portal through the stars made him break out into a cold sweat.

"No...no...no!" He was rambling to himself without even noticing it, frenetically overturning blankets, spreading pillows and furniture alike across the room (_careful, the coals will still burn, child_) and beside himself in an agony of frustration and worry. Shaking his head every time his agitated questing produced a great heaping pile of nothing, Kano felt close to screaming. Quivering slightly all over, the boy raised a blanket above his head and made a violent gesture with it, as if to rip or tear it, and that was how the girl saw him first; a crazy, tattered slip of a boy glaring neon hatred at a blanket as if it were his worst enemy.

Kano turned as the orange light spilled across him, and there was a figure silhouetted in it. A somewhat boyish figure, but clearly a girl, as the next moment revealed.

"What are you doing?" It was a low voice for a girl to have, but it was definitely feminine. She was curious, speaking without any negative affliction at all, but still Kano stuttered, making illegible sounds for a moment before the only thing he'd said to other people for months came to his tongue. He let it fly without hesitation.

"Eh - Ah, would you like to buy an umbrella?" He flushed darkly at his incompetence (_silly boy_); he still did not have his precious umbrellas, he didn't know where he was, or who this girl was at all.

"I have plenty."

_Not this kind,_ he wanted to say. _Not magic ones. _

But the interest in her was gone now, a sort of distance evident in the inflection of her voice, and she turned and disappeared into the light and came back with a tray. An appetizing smell steamed from the tray, and Kano's stomach growled despite himself. He reached for the tray, then stopped and gave the girl a guilty glance. She wasn't much taller than him, but she radiated an air of authority.

"You can take it," she said in the same emotionless voice, and stepped past him to turn the light on.

The brightness overwhelmed his eyes for a moment, and he closed them briefly, trying to gauge on how to deal with this girl. He hadn't had much interaction with others when he was with his mother, and even then he closely guarded by a self-imposed sentinel, spinning tales (_liar_) on how he'd clumsily fallen and bruised his face, or tricking up an excuse (_liar_) for the bandages wrapped round his calf. It was all a game then. And after, no one would go near the dirty little street rat he'd metamorphosed into. The idea of synergy between others was almost an entirely new prospect to him.

As Kano quietly picked at the fruit she'd set before him, she sat cross legged before him and scrutinized him, head tilted to one side. He observed her back. Dark green hair - an unnatural color, did she dye it? Or have someone to dye it? Her clothes were certainly a cut above average, judging by the set and style of them, and if she could afford that, she could afford a stylist. She was pale, likely from a life cooped up indoors, but there was a certain toughness about her that belied her size and stature. Her features were somewhat delicate. Not quite pretty, no, the eyes were too intense and the nose too narrow for that, but there was potential for her to bloom (_burn_).

Of course, most of the automatic judgement upon her looks escaped him; he was of the tender young age where looks don't matter much to children, and all he noticed from that sort of introspection was that her eyes felt like they were boring into his skull. He relaxed when she turned them to picking at a loose thread in her skirt.

Presently, she opened her mouth. "Why do you ask about umbrellas? Don't you want to know how you got here?"

"You see, I sell umbrellas. That's how I make a living. And they're not any type of umbrellas, they're _magic-_"

"Cut the nonsense," she said curtly. "I didn't take you in to hear you rave. Unless you're sick. Are you sick? I've come to believe my father is sick in the mind. You could be like him. Do you believe in those of fairy tales?" Her tone suggested disdain for such a childish practice.

Kano blinked at the sudden gush of words from her. "W-well, yes. Don't you?"

She turned up her nose. "My father says fairy-tales breed laziness, and that laziness breeds sloth. He doesn't let me read fairy tales. Instead, he makes me read horribly boring things, and says if I must waste my time reading, I'd better be useful."

The girl arrogantly made eye contact with him, and he quelled the urge to flinch (_she's only human, and there are worse things to fear than a girl with her dander up_). Instead, he reached for a backbone suppressed by the hardships of his life, and replied hotly; "Well, if you don't have the capacity to imagine things, how do you see your future? How do you dream? You _do_ dream, don't you? Or are you too special for that?"

Now the tables were turned, and the girl looked somewhat flustered. Then her countenance flickered, and she was once again a porcelain doll. "Of course I dream. Everyone should dream, and if they don't, there's something wrong with them." Her tone held the faintest footprints of a sneer. "Dreams are only left-overs from your brain's typical workings, and they hold no significance or meaning." She lifted her chin, daring him to retort.

In reply, Kano popped a slice of apple into his mouth, chewed thoroughly, and swallowed, watching her unblinkingly. "What's your name?"

She was taken aback again. "Tsubomi Kido. But only my friends get to call me Tsubomi, so you have to call me Kido."

Kano took another bite out of an apple slice, contemplated it, then said "Tsubomi."

The girl jerked, as if expecting a blow.

Kano gave a wild, almost malicious smile. "You don't have friends, do you?"

She gave him a look of purest, unadulterated murder, and he scrambled back a few feet as she raised her hand. Years of living with a mother such as his had trained him well for this situation, though when Kido came close he closed his eyes and turned his cheek to take the brunt of the blow. A bruised cheek was infinitely preferable to having swollen eyes or a bloody lip.

The expected shock didn't shatter his senses. She seemed like a strong girl, assuredly capable of slapping him to high heaven, yet the strike he'd been anticipating was nothing but a light touch, cradling his cheek. He opened his eyes wide. The word 'surprised' didn't do him justice at that moment, for this tough, cocky girl had tears in her eyes, shining like gilded diamonds, though he knew by default that they wouldn't ever fall. As much as he wanted to look away he didn't (_couldn't_).

"I'm Kano," he said.

"I don't have friends either," he said.

"I'll prove to you my umbrellas are magic," he said.

"Promise you that on my life," he said.

Kido looked at him and there was nothing to be read from her vitreous expression, but she inclined her head after a year, and said softly, "Show me."


	3. See Such Wondrous Sights

**I'm not sorry. **

**Review! :D**

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Kido was leading him through the house, navigating its labyrinthine coils with an ease born of years of traversing them. Kano noticed, after a while, that they never took any of the main halls, instead walking through narrow diversions and dusky halls to ensure that they weren't seen. But this too seemed natural to the girl, as if she'd spent her entire life so far walking in the shadows.

Nervously, he broached this subject to her, and she replied in the remote way he'd come to recognize in the short time he'd known her. "My father tends to hit me when he sees me, and sometimes he storms the halls shouting 'Tsubomi! Tsubomi, you little bastard girl, come out where I can see you!'"

She stopped walking so abruptly Kano nearly crashed into her back. "And if I was within earshot, I would find him, because he is my father, and good girls obey her father." She fixed her hands with a look so intense he thought they would burst into flame. "I've been able to hide more recently because my sister came back from school. He dotes on her, and she doesn't like it when he hits me."

A ragged inhale, and Kano wasn't sure if she needed comfort or not. He settled for awkwardly patting her shoulder, and after a moment Kido put her head back up and strode onward.

Sooner rather than later, the corridor they were passing through spat them out like a pair of beans into an extravagant main hall. Kano stopped to marvel at an embroidered tapestry on the wall, rubbing it between his fingers, and said (_stupid child, stating the_ _obvious_) "Wow, you must be really rich."

Kido glared at him and motioned for him to step back into the relative safety of the small hall, but the boy persisted. "How much did this cost, anyway?" His face was one of nothing but awe as the massive wave of cloth rippled above him.

"Get back!" hissed the jade-haired girl, beckoning with a furious energy. "You're going to get us caught!"

Kano danced further back into the wide hall, smirking at her discomfort. His abrasive personality was at it again, (_do you want to be friendless, no wonder no one buys from you_) already pushing away the girl who'd saved him. "Yeah? Well, I don't see anyo-"

A voice carried around a corner, indistinct, but deep and imposing. A primal sort of fear kindled in the boy, and he stood frozen on the spot, quivering with pent-up energy. Kido, who'd instinctively slunk back into the veiled shadows, noted his deer-in-headlights expression. "Come _on_, idiot! Before he shows!" Forgetting some of her fear, she rushed into the hall, a blank-faced doll on a mission, and grabbed his arm to drag him. "Let's go, go, _go!_"

Kano's feet didn't work until he actually saw the man. Part of it was nothing but fear, but part of him wanted to see the monster that beat this strong girl into obedience. Either way, he was rooted to the spot as Kido's father rounded the corner.

He was a tall man, a muscled man, every inch the man the low strong voice implied. Towering above the petrified children, he seemed a giant, a god, and if he reached up he could tear holes in the ceiling and shatter the glass and peel apart the sky to rain fire and death on them both. The anger on him seemed to add another five yards to his height, until it seemed he'd be crammed into the domed ceiling like Alice in the forest.

"Tsubomi!" Now the enormous hands that could blot out the sun were curling around, reaching for the girl, who blanched. "Tsubomi, what have you done? Who is this boy? I'll have to ask him _nicely_, won't I, you little bastard?"

"Run," said Kido, barely making a sound, but taking off like a shot, towing Kano in her stead. His shoes had had the tread worn off of them long ago, and he slipped and slid all over the ground, earthquake footsteps in pursuit. His heart drummed a frantic tattoo in time to the rhythmical _thump, thump, thump_ of the bear chasing him, until the steps were louder and stronger than the pulses were, and without it it seemed he would collapse, his heart no longer willing to go on without its timpani in the background.

"I'll get you!" roared the creature of rage, and the slamming footsteps increased their pace. The children reciprocated, fleeing left and right through the hallways, though Kido's father was able to track them unerringly. Kano didn't bother to spare a glance over his shoulder; even one misstep would send him spilling across the ground, and he'd be lifted by the barbarian behind him, meaty hands encircling his throat. Nothing Kido could or would(_n't_) do then would save him, and he was _not_ going to expire after he'd just been saved (_how pitful would that be?_)

_It is almost like a game,_ he realized suddenly. _Step where your guide leads you, and don't fall..._ He almost saw the hearts of health floating in the corner of his vision.

Heavy hands smacked the air behind him, and there was a grunt of rage at the two children who'd evaded his charge. "Kido..." shrilled the young boy, who'd gotten a glimpse of the blocky features distorted with rage, black eyes spitting frenzied maelstroms. The loathing was palpable in the air, and that was only a quick cut out of peripheral vision.

"Turn here!" bellowed the girl, and she skidded sideways, coming to an abrupt narrow hallway that barely looked wide enough for one of them. If her father fallowed, he'd block it up like a clot of fat in a blood vessel.

Kano squeezed past her, desperate to escape the beast, and Kido grabbed his shirt, her fist clenched tightly in the pewter cloth. "I told you, idiot, get back in the hallway! Now look what you've done, we're stuck in this area, like mice trapped in their hole. He'll get us eventually..." Her breath came in sobbing rasps, but her face was composed and placid. (S_he's almost a better liar than you are.)_

That thought was shaken out of his head by Kido, who yanked him near and glared. "Are you stupid or something? It's _your_ fault that we're in here."

Kano glanced to the side, and then amidst the yelling was a cool, calming voice. It tamed the roars, coaxed the monster into the shape of a man, and lured him away, repeating such soothing chants as, "Come on, Father, we'll go back to the library and I'll even let you have a drink of your favorite, the bottle with the monkey on it, and we can discuss your plans..."

The young boy quickly deduced that the owner of this voice must belong to Kido's sister, and a quick glance at the jade-haired girl confirmed that. The trembling hope and love in her eyes made her beautiful, made him shiver, though those emotions weren't directed at him.

Once the voices were far enough away, Kido pulled at his sleeve. "Let's go," she said gruffly, and they made it the rest of the way to their destination without incident.

It was a room with many windows and not enough light. The single lamp gave the place a somewhat malevolent cast, and instead of using it, Kido strode over to the fireplace and banked the coals. In a few moments, she'd gotten a reasonably solid fire going, and the warm light was infinitely more homey.

"Right, here are your umbrellas," said the girl in a businesslike tone, and stood on tiptoe to fish a plastic bag off a desk, the ragged edge of her skirt pulling up to reveal her socks, and a thin stripe of skin. A bruise darkened the back of one leg. Seen from this angle, she could've been any girl, like the sort that he frequently had run into on a playground in a different city. The contrast was somewhat ridiculous, especially taking the green-haired girl's personality into consideration.

"But before we begin..." Kido glided close and held his chin in one hand. Her face, as usual, showed nothing, and as Kano held his breath, she ordered, "Close your eyes."

He closed them, half perplexed and half anticipating the next few seconds. _Is this what girls do? They kiss people? I suppose a kiss would be acceptable- _

Kido cocked her hand back and gave him a good, ringing slap with it (_did you really expect a kiss from this girl? What a pitiful thought. Your imagination is too strong, boy, keep it on a tight rein or it may well happen again)_. The force of it bowled the boy over, and he fell backwards, rolled a complete circumference (knocking into the firewood and spilling it in the process), and came up looking startled with one hand on his cheek. "Ow! What was that for?" The red shape of her hand was already appearing, and he angrily forced back tears.

"For being an idiot. You almost got us caught, and trust me, getting caught by him is much more painful than that slap. That was a kitten scratch." She turned and dusted her hands off almost smugly before turning back. "Now show me this magic umbrella trick, and you'd better have not wasted my time."

Kano grabbed at the bag, surprised to find his hands shaking. (_You've missed it, haven't you.)_ It had felt so long since he'd held his precious umbrellas so close to him, and he was barely able to rip the suddenly diaphanous bag away from his treasures. Kido watched all this with a raised eyebrow, but accepted one readily enough when he held it out to her. As for him, he closed eager fingers around the shaft of the familiar rainbow-sectioned one.

(_Long time no see, darling._)

They made a curious sight, two children silhouetted against the fire, one clutching a rainbow-patterned umbrella, and the other regarding a dainty confection of white fabric and wine-colored lacy patterns.

"Are you ready to go up?" Even his voice trembled with excitement.

(_Yes, yes, start, commence, initiate, _go, _slow, stupid child, can you not understand these words? GO._)

Kido picked up some of his excess energy and nodded cautiously, unable to keep the beginning of a smile off her face.

"Then let's go."

Kano positioned her hands over the umbrella pole correctly, and then opened hers, immediately rushing back to his umbrella to take flight (_ah, __higher, higher, scrape the roof of the sky, escape the celestial sphere, take flight!) _as well, two birds adrift in a land of stars and the wide open sky above heaven.


End file.
